Holding bins or stations for holding items, such as packaged food (e.g., wrapped sandwiches, fries, or breakfast meals), and keeping the packaged food at elevated temperatures while in inventory prior to sale at restaurants, food counters, cafeterias, etc. are known. These holding bins typically include one or more shelves for supporting the food, with each shelf having top and bottom heat sources for warming the food supported by that shelf. The bottom heat source typically warms the food from underneath using conducted heat. The top heat source warms the food from overhead using heat lamps or infrared heat sources suspended above the food using an appropriate overhead structure. The food may also be warmed by convected heat from a warm stream of air aimed at the food.
Existing food holding bins, however, have a number of drawbacks. First, the overhead structure used to suspend the heat lamps or infrared heat sources above the food gives these bins a "commercial" appearance, and gives prospective food purchasers the impression the food has been held for an unappetizingly long time. Both of these characteristics negatively impact the consumer's perception of food quality and, thus, negatively impact the consumer's willingness to purchase the food. Second, the heat sources used by the existing bins have serious drawbacks in their ability to properly warm and maintain the food. Heat lamps are "spotty", so that heat is provided to only small areas of the lower level. Infrared metal and glass elements generally provide a more uniform source of heat, but have high surface temperatures. The warm air applied to the food by convection heaters dries out the food by rapid moisture evaporation, and convection heaters are relatively complex.
Some bins for holding and warming food items use a top heat source in combination with a top cover. The top cover permits reflection of heat generated by the top heat source towards the food items being held in the bin. However, the top heat source and top cover of such bins also imparts a "commercial" appearance to such bins, and gives the impression to prospective purchasers that the food items have been held for an unappetizingly long time. Further, the top heat source and top cover inherently obstruct a customer's view of the food items.
Bins having a top heat source, and optionally a top cover, are quite bulky. In addition, some food holding units have multiple horizontal shelves for holding food items and keeping them warm. These added levels further increase the bulk of these bins, make loading and unloading of food items difficult, and add to a consumer's impression that the food has been held in the bin for a significant time.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a holding bin for holding and warming items such as food products that overcomes these and other disadvantages of the prior art. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a holding bin for holding and warming food items that does not require an overhead source of heat. The elimination of the overhead heat source would provide a less "commercial" appearance, lessen the consumer's impression that the food items have been held for a long time, and provide prospective food purchasers with an unobstructed view of the food, along with unobstructed access to the food. Further, it would be advantageous to provide a food holding and warming bin with heat sources that uniformly distribute heat to the food being held, do not have any high surface temperatures, and do not dry food through rapid evaporation. It would be advantageous if such heat sources had a relatively simple structure with no moving parts for improved reliability and maintainability. Also, it would be advantageous to provide a food holding and warming bin with only a single horizontal holding surface for supporting the food items. Such a bin would have decreased bulkiness, and would be easier to load and unload, than existing bins with multiple shelves. It would also be advantageous to provide a food holding bin having a channel through which the items may be clearly viewed and easily moved by prospective customers.